Keep
by departured
Summary: After the war, Hermione needs a place to get away from the painful memories. She applies to one of the sixteen dragon reserves in Romania and who does she happen to meet there? None other than the second-eldest Weasley. T, might move up to M.
1. Chapter 1

The Portkey was almost ready, and Hermione would be leaving soon.

She wasn't sure if she was ready for this, yet. Last minute panic began to settle in, and suddenly she was as unsure as she was sure to begin with.

Hermione refused to live a boring, Ministry job life. It wasn't going to be that simple. She may have looked like the complete mantra of innocence, but anyone who actually knew Hermione Granger knew otherwise. She was eighteen years old, and had fought in the Second Wizarding War beside none other than Harry Potter and was famous for being the brains of the operation, along with a fiery temper.

After the war was over, and the shamble of a Wizarding World began to piece itself together, everyone expected Ron and Hermione to get together. At first, she had thought that as well. But it wasn't exactly meant to be. Hermione knew, after a prolonged bought of thinking, that it would be very awkward indeed to date her best friend – she now felt as if they were brother and sister, and one couldn't possibly date her brother. Even though Ron felt the other way, he still wanted a relationship with her, that was the farthest thing from Hermione's mind. It was just simply, as she put it, much too awkward. Was it that hard to maintain a simple, easy, friendship? Yes, it was, if she was telling the truth to herself. Ron had to make feelings difficult, and maybe that was an underlying reason she was so happy to get away.

Currently she was pacing around her flat, bags packed and ready to go, clutched in hand. Hermione was nervous. This was a field of study that was dominated by men, and it would be much, much different, but then again, wasn't change supposed to be a good thing? Leaving Britain behind in favor of Romania. It was new, it was exciting, and Hermione couldn't wait. The war had left permanent scars, and they needed some time to heal.

When Hermione had heard of a dragon reserve requiring a researcher – the details she was given were vague – she immediately strained to find out more. She was told it was a dragon reserve in Romania, fairly small but well off, and they had been conducting study into a new breed that had been found; the Austrian Ridgeback, cousin of the Norwegian Ridgeback. It was a very new way to get away from all the pain of the past and start anew, doing something she was very good at – researching.

She had immediately contacted the reserve through owl, and got a response; they would be accepting applications. Hermione had drawn one up, and barely bothering for a break, had sent it out. Only Merlin knew how much she needed some away time – to think, to make new experiences. Hermione loved Harry and Ron, yes, as brothers, but sometimes she just thrived best alone. She had promised to visit often, though – however it would most likely be only summer, Christmas, and Easter breaks.

When Hermione had gotten a positive response back from the reserve, she was completely thrilled. That was when she had broken the news to Harry, Ron, and the rest of the Weasley family – "Why are you leaving so quickly?" Ron had asked, - and George had chipped in, pointing out that Charlie worked somewhere out in Romania.

Hermione had shrugged, saying she'd looked it up and there were sixteen dragon reserves in Romania, and she was at a fairly small one. There wasn't any chance of hm being there.

The letter she had gotten back from the reserve had also told her that she was sign on for a period of two years, once those were finished she could either stay or leave, there was no pressure. The pay was generous and she got her own private living quarters, similar to a dorm at Hogwarts but just to herself. It sounded wonderful, and Hermione was completely thrilled. It was a new, adventurous task, and she felt like it would challenge her – in a good way, of course.

So that's what she was doing, at seven thirty-eight on a Sunday night, waiting for the Portkey to activate. It would be leaving at exactly quarter to eight, which meant she had seven minutes alone, brooding in her thoughts. Hermione had been told it would let her off in sight of the main building, where she could talk to the secretary, get her living quarters, and get prepared for a meeting with her boss the next morning before heading for her very first day of work.

A mix of emotions seemed to be overwhelming her. A little bit of anxiety, but that was only natural. What if she got seriously hurt? After all she's been through, and a dragon brought her down… What if they didn't like her, and sent her back home to Britain? She wouldn't be able to face anyone with the rejection. She would be too busy mourning and wondering what she had done wrong.

Determined not to let her thoughts get off track, Hermione pinched her wrist and took deep, soothing breaths, closing her eyes and leaning against the counter, hand firmly wrapped around the hairbrush that was to become her Portkey in a very short seven – no, four, now – minutes. Four minutes. What if the Portkey didn't work? What if it had all been a mistake?

Shaking her head, she mentally chided herself. _You can't be thinking that. It'll only make you more stressed, and the less stress the better. _If only she had something to occupy herself for four minutes. Hermione couldn't read; if she tried, she would get too lost in the book and would miss her Portkey. Taking a shower – well, that was obviously out. Ice cream, too, because she had emptied her icebox earlier in the day, and had no food remaining in her flat.

Two minutes. Hermione's breath hitched in her throat. Why was she so nervous? It was the first time she would be so far away from home, without anybody. She had always had Harry, or her parents, or Ron. No, this was something she was doing on her own. It was completely different.

One minutes. Hermione clutched the brush-Portkey tighter, her knuckles turning a pale white. She had never been a fan of using the Portkey – it was an unwelcome feeling, but seeing as only triple-registered wizards could Apparate internationally, she was stuck using a Portkey.

Thirty seconds. She mentally counted down in her head, feeling a little bit as though she was a pre-schooler again and preparing a rocket ship for blast-off.

A sickening familiar tug pulled at her naval, and she was spun round and round and round, hair fluttering into her eyes and luggage still firmly in her hand when…

She reached solid ground, with a thump, and examined her surroundings.

It was lush and green, and there was a smattering of small buildings nestled in front of a forest. A good distance away, in the other direction, Hermione could see metal bars and lights of fire, along with a distant yell of a manly voice, loud and hoarse.

But first thing came first; she had to check in.

One of the buildings was slightly larger than the others – two stories, although it couldn't be more than six meters square. It was slightly worn-out, like somebody had been meaning to fix it but never got around to it.

Hermione made her way to it, the dirt crunching under her runners, Portkey and bags still in hand. She made her way through the door of the main building, not knowing what to expect.

"Miss Granger!" A woman with brown, silver streaked hair and a kind face, mid-fifties, greeting her, a large, genuine smile on her face. The interior of the building was just like a lounge; furniture, and a little coffee-and-tea station in the corner.

"Yes, that's me, Miss…"

"Oh, no need for the formality. Call me Anne," the woman said, and leaned closer to Hermione – who had been anticipating a handshake – but got a brief, flitting hug. "No problems getting here, I presume?"

"None at all, Anne," replied Hermione, smiling slightly at the warm welcome, and noticing that although the woman was definitely English, she had a slight Romanian lilt that had to have been acquired from living there for a while.

"Great, great," Anne said, brushing a strand of silvery-brown hair behind her ear. "You're the first other woman in ages, here – I've been here almost thirty years now, and from when I started to now, there's been a grand total of four." Laughing slightly, she nodded at Hermione.

"And I'm guessing you would like to see your living quarters?" Hermione nodded, and some of the tension eased up. It wasn't as bad as she thought- so far. Anne gestured her out of the door, following closely behind her. She sucked in a breath, her lungs filling up on the cool, refreshing air. The air was much more cleaner than London's, she could certainly tell.

Hermione's living quarters was one part of a separate four part dormitory, and it was quite cozy. The kitchen, the sitting room and the dining room were all in the same area, and down the short hall was the bedroom, equipped with a twin-sized bed and small dresser, and a bathroom, which, to Hermione's pleasure, had a bathtub.

"And here you are," signaled Anne. "Cozy, isn't it?"

"Very lovely," agreed Hermione, dropping her two bags (undetectably extended, of course) in the middle of the sitting room.

"I'm glad you like it. Mr. Varive wants to see you at nine o'clock tomorrow, though, in his office, which is on the second floor of the main building. Someone will give you a tour around, and Mr. Varive will explain the exact details of what you will be doing here. I'll hope to see you later," with a wink, Anne disappeared, leaving Hermione to her thoughts and moving the few belongings she had with her into her little abode.

Deciding that relaxing would probably be the best way to spend her evening, she dug through her purple bag and found a Muggle paperback novel – A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickers. Her mother would always read a little bit of it out loud to Hermione when she was young, and even though she didn't understand it, she would enjoy it.

Sighing, she dragged one of the bags into the bedroom, and began the tedious task of sorting. It had been a habit she had picked up from her mum – organizing everything, keeping everything in it's place. Hermione had always been a neat freak, with everything- room cleaning, deadlines, assignments… it had just come naturally. She wasn't one to stuff clothes in her drawer randomly.

After that time-consuming task was completed, Hermione peered out of the window, getting a good view of the sunset. Streams of orange, red, purple, and pink light were beaming in, and if she paused and stayed completely still for a few seconds she could hear the roars of the dragons, from the other part of the reserve. The colors in the sky blended together perfectly, and Hermione thought that she had never, ever seen anything like that before. It was quite possibly the most breathtaking thing she had ever seen.

Stretching, Hermione made her way over to the bathroom, filling the bathtub with bubbles as she stripped and tied her hair in a topknot, finding her frizz-taming shampoo and conditioner set in her bag, and set them on the counter as she got into the bath.

Once again, she let her mind wander as she soaked in the bathtub. How would tomorrow go? How much would she be interacting with dragons?

It was half an hour later when the water had gone cold and the sunset long gone when Hermione had dragged herself out of the bathtub, questions of what tomorrow was going to hold for her still firmly planted in her mind.

* * *

_Hello. Welcome to my first multichapter under this account. I have pretty high hopes for this story. If you could drop me a review, that'd be great. Even two words, just to let me know how I'm doing._


	2. Chapter 2

Hermione woke up the next day, excited, but with a weird feeling in the pit of her stomach. It was her first day. She shifted around the bed; it was slightly uncomfortable, but she would get used to it. Groaning and rubbing her eyelids, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stretched her arms, taking a peek at the clock on the wall. A few minutes after six o'clock in the morning – the early sun could just be seen over the horizon and was casting dim streams of light through the curtains in Hermione's room.

It was her first day.

The day where she'd undoubtedly learn a handful of new things, and she was nervous. Who _wasn't _nervous on their first day, though? Especially since she worked at a dragon reserve.

Padding to the kitchen in her pajamas, she set up a kettle, and went back in her room to go get dressed. Part of her Muggle-born heritage was always cooking tea the Muggle way- she always found the perfect temperature that way, and it always tasted much, much better. She dug out an outfit for the day; just a simple pair of day robes with a cooling charm inside of them – it was summer, and unusually hot. Pulling her fingers through her bushy hair, she tied it in a topknot and brushed the frizzy strands away from her face.

There was still a good half an hour before she had to leave to meet Mr. Verive, so Hermione settled on the small two-seater sofa and pulled out a _Tale of Two Cities _and started from where she left off last night.

A quick glance twenty-five minutes later told her that it was time to leave – or else she would be late, and Hermione Granger was never, ever late.

She made her way through the reserve back to the main building – granted, it wasn't very far because all of the buildings were within a quarter of a mile of each other.

As soon as she strided through the doors of the main building, she was greeting by Anne, who was much too cheery for nine in the morning.

"How'd you sleep?" the older woman asked, smiling genuinely.

"Great, great," replied Hermione distractedly. Her brain was still clouded with thoughts about what the first work day was to behold for her, so she wasn't exactly all there.

"Good," nodded Anne, "and Mr. Varive should be here in a few moments, while you're waiting feel free to grab yourself a coffee or tea of any sort." Anne gestured to the little station in the corner of the lounge.

"Miss Granger, I take it?"

Hermione turned around to the call of an unfamilar voice and nodded, taking in the man who had just walked in the doors of the main building. He was tall, sturdy (even Quidditch muscles didn't compare to that) and looked around mid-thirties, with light brown hair and deep blue eyes that were lined with laugh lines. He wasn't as intimidating as she thought he would be – that is, if she had guessed correctly.

"Mr. Varive?" Hermione asked, unsure but hopeful.

The man nodded. "In the flesh. It's wonderful to be meeting you in person. Only Merlin knows how much we desperately need a new research assistant around here."

Hermione grinned and let out a laugh, loving the warm welcome. It was always great to be getting on the right foot.

Mr. Varive continued. "First things first, though. I take it much wasn't explained to you in the outline of the job, except for the fact you were doing in-depth research here about the Austrain Ridgeback – fascinating, of course."

Hermione nodded.

"Well, obviously, there are a few ground rules. No getting too near the dragons – there are far and few who can do that, although we do have one here – and concentrate on the work. No dawdling. And a few informal rules… such as no hooking up with the sex-deprived idiots that work here."

His tone was clearly joking, and Hermione laughed.

"I promise, Mr. Varive," she replied lightly.

"Good. Glad that we've got the basics down. Now, for the tour of the reserve. Do you see the flames rising up from over there?" He pointed a finger in the distance, where flames crackled into the sky.

"Yes?"

"_Those _are the Chinese Fireballs. We got a new herd of them in last week, and they're completely vicious. The research you're doing will not pertain to them, however, I'm just letting you know to stay pretty far away from them. We only have a few tamers who can go up close, and it'll scald your skin off."

Deciding that she wanted to keep her skin _on, _Hermione nodded.

"Considering we're not as big as the other reserves more towards the North, we mainly focus on five – well, six, now – different breeds of dragons. Hungarian Horntails, Chinese Fireballs, Norwegian Ridgebacks, Common Welsh Green, Austrian Ridgebacks, and the Peruvian Vipertooth – keep away from those too, because they spit poison, and we have all females, and they're generally the more vicious."

"Where will I be working?" asked Hermione curiously, as the question had been nagging at the back of her mind for a few days.

"Well, sometimes you'll be observing the behavior of some dragons – keep in mind you'll be observing, not interacting. But mainly you'll be based in the research facility," he pointed to a building a little closer to the dragons than the others, "looking through archives, and you will be in contact with the Austrian reserves. Right now, you're looking for similarities between the Austrian Ridgeback and the Norwegian Ridgeback, so you'll be doing a lot of observing."

"I have an outline-" he conjured a booklet and handed it to her, continuing while she flipped through it "-and this is basically what you'll be doing. It's all in there. Any questions?"

Hermione shook her head, believing he had explained himself pretty throughout.

"No? Well, let's continue with the tour of the reserve then."

* * *

Hermione found the reserve fascinating; there was so much to learn, it was incredible! Although they didn't get very close to the more vicious dragons, Hermione got to study one of the more tamer Common Welsh Greens up close and was still very exhilarated by it.

"So," said Mr. Varive after what had to be a good two hours walking across the reserve, "this is it."

"It's brilliant!" said Hermione without thinking, and flushed a little.

"I'm glad you think so Miss Granger, considering you'll be working here," laughed Mr. Varive.

"Do I... do I start now?"

"Yes, I'll show you your office, which is in the research building," he pointed out a building a few yards away from the main office, "so you will have access to the archives and the main Floo point - but that only Floos to areas in Romania...well, here we are."

They came to a stop in front of a building that looked similar to the main one, and Mr. Varive gestured her in.

It was a pretty simple place, with a wraparound desk in one corner, a sliding glass door in the back, and a wall lined with various types of guides and files. It was neat, orderly and articulate - just how Hermione liked it.

The first question out of her mouth wasn't _when do I get started? _but in fact was "Is this office _just _for me?" To have a whole building to herself - wow!

"Yes," laughed Mr. Varive at her gaping expression. Cheeks flushing, she shut her mouth. "Just for you. You'll have a few people stopping in and out - Anne, mostly, but she isn't too much of a bother - and some of the tamers, occasionally. This is where," he gestured grandly and exaggeratedly to her office, "you'll be conducting all of your research."

"Wow," said Hermione, clearly amazed. "This is wonderful. When do I get started?" Smiling at her eagerness, Mr. Varive began to explain.

"Just now," he began, and pointed to a stack of papers on your desk, "and those are recorded 'sightings' of the Austrian Ridgeback - to be sorted by you, and seeing if there is any connections between the sightings. Slightly dull," he admitted, and Hermione shrugged.

"When do I need it finished by?" she asked curiously, sitting in her office chair and ruffling through the papers; there was a lot of sightings!

"We don't really have a due date, but don't take forever," said Mr. Varive, leaning against the doorway of her office. "There isn't really a specific deadline concerning research, but you'll know what you need to do. If you need anything, I'm a few buildings away, Anne or someone else can show you the way," he finished kindly, flashing her a grin before exiting the doorway.

Hermione stared down at the task before her; _paperwork. _Dipping her quill in ink, she began scribbling and comparing away.

* * *

It had taken about four hours to complete the task at hand, and when she finally set the quill down and stretched her aching hand, it had been nearly seven at night and her stomach was grumbling irritably. _Right. _She had to eat dinner.

Shuffling the papers, she slid them into a desk drawer and stood up, wincing as her knees cracked painfully from sitting down unmoving for hours. She had noticed a few very loose connections between the sightings - they had all been occurred north of Vienna, Austria, and near the mountains. That must mean they were adaptable to cold weather... she pulled out a sheet of fresh parchment and wrote down her observation. Okay, she really had to get back to her flat and make something to eat before she collapsed from exhaustion - the day had been taxing, first physically with a tour of the _whole _bloody reserve, and mentally because of the paperwork.

Brushing some invisible dust off her robes, she tucked everything in her office away, making sure it was completely clean. She was just about to open the door and leave before a quick knock sounded through the door. _Mr. Varive or Anne, probably, _she thought to herself. Hermione wrenched the door open, and a shock of red hair stunned her.

"Charlie?"

* * *

_ Gosh, I'm so slow on my updates. Sorry to leave you hanging for a whole entire month. Here it is; a bit shorter than the previous chapter, but I like this. Review and stay tuned._


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